Acer performs professional shake-up

Acer announces it has created a dedicated professional sales group that will focus on new form factor PCs for enterprises

PC maker Acer announced today that it has restructured its EMEA organisation to create a dedicated professional sales group that will focus on building new form factor desktop PCs customised for specific enterprise applications and solutions.

Like rival manufacturers, Acer is struggling to arrest slowing PC sales growth in western Europe. It also faces decreasing revenues because of price erosion, caused partially by Intel and AMD’s ongoing battle for market share, which has seen the price of OEM chips fall from an average of $150 to $100, said Acer president Gianfranco Lanci.

"We are trying to understand customers’ needs. Rather than big boxes, we are looking to deliver thin clients with big expansion capabilities and better security and manageability," Lanci said.

"The PC has not changed much over the past 20 years, but in the next five to 10 years we will see application- and solution-based computers in new form factors that provide more in terms of total cost of ownership (TCO)," explained Lanci.

The company will continue to push mobility solutions based on its notebook PCs, which Lanci currently considers to be Acer’s major strength. But he lamented that current technology is unable to meet users' mobile needs, specifically high-speed wireless connectivity.

"There are lots of [mobile] form factors coming out, but in terms of the platform and specification, they do not allow us to provide customers with what they really need. It may be a couple of years before we are ready to offer such a device with the [necessary] wireless technology," Lanci said.